Aircraft turbofan engines often employ reverse thruster systems to produce a reverse thrust to help decelerate the aircraft upon landing (e.g., after touchdown), thereby reducing brake wear and enabling shorter landing distances. For example, reverse thruster systems may be deployed upon landing to provide additional stopping forces in adverse weather conditions (e.g., on wet, slushy or slippery runways). To produce reverse thrust and/or reduce forward thrust, many known reverse thruster systems of turbofan engines include a cascade system to redirect or spoil airflow (e.g., provided by a fan of the turbofan engine) that would otherwise produce a forward thrust.
Although the reverse thruster systems provided by cascade systems typically reduce a net forward thrust produced by an aircraft engine, the reverse thrust produced by known cascade systems do not overcome a forward thrust produced by a main engine core. Thus, the net thrust produced by the aircraft engine results in a forward thrust even when the reverse thruster system is deployed and the aircraft is parked at, for example, a tarmac. As a result, most aircraft engines employing a cascade system type reverse thruster system are not capable of providing a net reverse thrust to cause an aircraft to travel in a reverse direction when, for example, the aircraft is parked. To this end, a pushback or a tow tractor is needed to move (i.e., push or pull) the commercial aircraft employing turbofan engines in a reverse direction when departing from, for example, a terminal gate, a tarmac, etc.